s rain declined to play spoilsport and stayed away, schools in the city reopened amid festivities on Monday, marking the beginning of yet another academic year.
The district with 21,000 first time school-goers across 776 schools witnessed colourful reception programmes as part of the ‘Pravesanotsavam’.
The Government Girls’ High School provided a picture perfect reception to its 40 Class 1 students, some of who turned celebrities after they were interviewed by television channels.
All of them except one had a smile on their faces as they were led into a classroom, the walls of which were adorned with colourful cartoon characters. To sweeten things up, the teachers distributed sweets among them.
Being the first day, classes were wound up by afternoon, but not before the students were served food under the mid-day meal scheme. “Students were sent back with vegetable saplings to inculcate in them a habit of growing vegetables,” said Sabu Jacob, head master in-charge.
Government High School in Willingdon Island received 27 newly admitted students from Classes 5 to 10. This was an improvement compared to last year’s 22 admissions. “Admissions are likely to touch around 35 in the next couple of days, which is good enough for a school away from residential areas,” said C.S. Vishnuraj, head master in-charge. Students were given books and other educational items as part of the Pravesanotsavam.
Ernakulam RTO deployed five squads along roads leading to schools to ensure the safe movement of students.
The squads were deployed between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., mainly to check overloading and over-speeding, RTO K.M. Shaji said. Action will be taken in the coming days against school vehicles operating without certificates verified by the department. Private vehicles engaged for transporting students should display the board ‘On school duty’ on the front and rear.
